The Minnesota Twins could bring in an old friend to provide an additional safety net for their rotation depth chart. And let me be clear: there is an emphasis on ‘old.’
A handful of veteran starters are still looking for work as we approach Opening Day, and the Twins organization could be an ideal landing spot if the price is right. Guys like Rich Hill and Jake Odorizzi are already familiar with the club. Would a reunion with either make sense for the team and the player?
While neither offers significant upside, they could represent a more solid floor if the Twins need to turn to a backup plan early in the season. With the club cutting budget due to their TV revenue going down from years prior, these types of transactions could be the only ones the team can afford to make with the limitations they’ve set for themselves.
So, what would a reunion look like for Hill or Odorizzi, and would they be interested in such an arrangement?
Let’s start with Hill, the elder statesman of Major League Baseball. Now the oldest active player in the league, he’s looking to return to the mound for his age-44 season. He’s coming off a lackluster campaign with the rebuilding Pittsburgh Pirates and the post-trade deadline San Diego Padres, where he held a 5.41 ERA across 146 ⅓ innings pitched. It was his first season in a decade where he surpassed a 4.27 ERA, and his average fastball averaged only 88.4 MPH.
In today’s game, it’s difficult to have prolonged success without a passable fastball. But Hill’s offspeed offerings make him intriguing, and he may have some juice left in the box. Hill had three strong seasons before last year. His curveball and sweeper graded well. Each held opposing hitters to a slugging percentage under .400, with batting averages around the Mendoza line.
If Hill can find a way to regain some of the bite to those offerings, he could manage to eat some innings at the back end of the rotation or in a spot-start/swingman role. Granted, he might be unlikely to accept such a role rather than retire, but little about Hill follows conventional wisdom.
Odorizzi, 33, probably still has more to offer in a strictly starting role. He spent all of last year on the shelf with the Texas Rangers. Since leaving the Twins, he has a combined 4.31 ERA across 211 innings pitched. But his strikeout numbers dwindled in those two years while he jumped on and off the injured list. In his All-Star 2019 campaign with the Twins, Odorizzi had a stellar 10.1 K/9, but that figure sunk to a disappointing 7.6 K/9 in the three years that followed (including a pandemic-affected swan song with Minnesota in 2020).
Suppose Odorizzi is looking to latch on with a club now that he’s healthy, which admittedly is a huge assumption. The Twins could provide an excellent home for the veteran right-hander if he’s willing to work his way back on a minor-league deal. Not only did Odo enjoy the best season of his career with the Twins in 2019, but their Triple-A ballpark is a brisk 20-minute drive from Target Field. If he accepts a minor league deal with an opt-out in May or June, he could stretch out with the Saints and be on-call for a promotion if the MLB rotation takes a hit.
Working with pitching coach Pete Maki and Minnesota’s player development department could also be enticing for the righty. They’ve been known to have a penchant for retooling and tinkering with sliders and sweepers, and that offering has been hit pretty hard in Odorizzi’s last few campaigns. If they can get it to a passable level, he could have a solid complement to his fastball that still touches 92-93 mph with a low slugging percentage against.
Neither of these options will rile up much excitement for a frustrated fanbase that just waited through a rather underwhelming offseason. But they would undoubtedly raise the floor as a last line of defense if multiple injuries occur early on. And in a sports town where Murphy’s law seems to be etched on every team’s gravestone yearly, they could be a worthwhile endeavor to explore.
